Hey there! Yesterday I had to make a quick trip to K-Mart to buy some diapers for baby Kentaro. He is growing quickly through the various diaper sizes. While I was at the store, I found a number of winter flannel shirts on sale that I really liked. There were a number of pretty nice shirts in the 10-15 dollar price range. I looked through the various items to pick one out for myself (I like wearing flannel shirts.) Sadly, since it is late in the season, the vast majority of shirts were...

In Japan, it is a tradition to send New Year's greetings in the form of post cards. At the beginning of each year it isn't uncommon to receive a large stack of greetings from friends, relatives, and well-wishers. When my wife and I lived in Japan, we adhered to the tradition of sending and receiving these New Year's greetings. Since moving to the United States we still continue to send and receive these messages, although not in as great of volume as when we lived in Japan. Now my wife and ...

Hello there. Happy New Year! With the new year comes the end of New Year's break. The kids and teachers come back to school. Even though I was sad to end my vacation, I was pleasantly surprised at how happy I was to see the kids when we got back. (I would still rather stay home with my wife and baby though!) The kids are very industrious and attentive right after break. I have gotten a lot done with the kids during the first couple days. Of course I don't think that this will last fo...

After I wrote my last blog entry, Kenny started smiling. Here are a few video captures that we took while he was sitting on my lap. Cute, huh?

When I was in high school, I worked at a Bonanza restaurant. I worked there for about three years. It was a really good part-time job. I have lots of good memories from those days. I also learned a lot about working, cooking foods, and building friendships. The restaurant was a place where a family could get a lot of food for a reasonable price. Dinners included an all-you-can-eat salad bar, along with a steak, chicken, or seafood. The food wasn't always the highest-quality, but it was ...

Hi there everyone! I hope that all of you are having a nice Saturday. Kazuko and I had some fun. After relaxing all day, we brought out the "Dance Dance Revolution" game. We danced for about an hour. It is really good exercize. We haven't played DDR in quite some time. When we lived in an apartment, our playing time was a bit limited as we had downstairs-neighbors. Once we moved into a house, we finally had the freedom to play the game, but Kazuko was pregnant. Now that it seems...

Hello there and Happy 2004! Kazuko and I just got back home from enjoying our third-anniversary dinner. We visited a new sushi restaurant in Crystal, Minnesota. The name of the place is "Wild Mint." While we were there, we enjoyed some fried mackeral i‚³‚ñ‚܁Aj baked scallopsi‚Ù‚½‚āAjand a ten-item sashimi dish. We were pretty pleased with the food there. I think that it is the second-best place for Japanese food that we've been to in the Twin Cities area (the best being "Origami" i...

Hey there friends! I hope that New Year's preparations are going well. I don't necessarily have anything special planned. I know that Kazuko and I will watch the "Ko-Haku" (Red and White Song Contest. (The Red and White Song Contest is a yearly showcase of popular music in Japan. It is played each New Year's Eve.) I am also looking forward to watching the "World Idol" results show. I hope that Kurt from Norway does well... Today was a good day. My wife and I drove to the bank. Afte...

Hello there my friends. I hope that you are all having a happy day. I had kind of a sleepy day. I slept late and I took a nap. I suppose that is why we have vacation days. It was really quite nice. I like to spend some time sleeping. Kazuko and Kenny took a nice long nap with me too. How fun! After getting up, neither of us had the energy to cook anything for dinner. I decided to run out to Taco Bell (a commercial had just come on.) When I was there, I was struck with a sudden cra...

Hi there friends! I hope that you had a nice weekend. I am here, updating my weblog before I go to watch some Sunday night television. (I hope that "The Practice" isn't a re-run tonight!) We had a happy weekend. My mom and dad were here from Duluth. On Saturday, Kazuko and her mom and a lot of people from my family celebrated a baby shower for Kenny. That was a nice time. Usually men don't come to these sorts of events, but I stuck around to help translate for my mother-in-law while ...

Hi there friends. I hope that you're celebrating a happy holiday season, and that you've gotten everything that you need from the grocery stores until they open up again. My family and my parents are at my house, waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to get here from the Duluth-area so that we can open up Christmas morning presents. Yay! I wonder what I got. It seems that there is a new holiday tradition starting in America. It is an import tradition from the United Kingdom. In the ...

Hello there! Happy Christmas Eve eve to all of you. Kazuko and I have just gotten back from dinner at Perkins. I had a yummy honey mustard chicken sandwich, and Kazuko had a fish sandwich. (I had a bite of it. It seemed good enough.) The happiest news of the day is that my Christmas vacation has officially started. After two days of meetings at the school, I can finally kick-back and relax. Yay! I am looking forward to having about two weeks to enjoy with my family. As a matter o...

Hey there friends! I hope that you're having a lovely night. Kazuko and I are just up watching television. Kenny is happily asleep in bed. How cute! My sad news is that I am currently battling a cold. I have a cough and a stuffed nose. I also just don't feel 100 percent. I suppose that looking at all this from a "glass is half-full" perspective: at least I will get this over with before Christmas Vacation rather than during. (Although I hope that I feel better by Thursday when I...

Hello there! It is Sunday. I hope that you're having a good one. Kazuko, Kentaro, and I are here at home enjoying our Sunday. I am listening to the radio and playing with the computer. Kazuko is feeding Kentaro while watching Animal Planet on TV. There is a cute show about baby bats on right now. (I really like bats. Bats, hedgehogs, and monkeys are my favorite animals.) My sad news is that tomorrow I have to go to work. There are district-wide meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Rats...

Hello there friends. Here we are: one day from Christmas Vacation. I am really looking forward to some time off. I will be happy to be able to spend some more time with Kazuko and Kenny. Yay! The last day at work before the holiday will be interesting. The kids have all sorts of exciting activities in their classes, so I will have to be creative with how I spend my time. Today: I will clean up after my party last night, I will visit all of my students in class to give them presents, an...